By Lorna Shaddick, Channel NewsAsia, 14 May 2014
The forum has become something of a platform for international figures to air their views on world events, and Mr Shanmugam used his address to discuss the need for the US to deal with a rising China.
The forum is a chance for Jews from across the US and the world to come together to meet leading international figures, and discuss their views on global events.
This year, to reflect the Obama administration's continued rebalancing towards the Asia Pacific, the committee wanted to hear not just from an Asian country, but from one with consistently strong ties to Israel.
That is why they invited Singapore's foreign minister.
Shira Loewenberg, director of the American Jewish Committee Asia Pacific Institute, said: “The concerns of the Asia Pacific region and those that are of particular importance to Singapore are our concerns as well.
“We support a peaceful Pacific region -- recently there have been tensions there between many Asian countries.”
And those tensions were certainly picked up on in Mr Shanmugam's speech, which was unflinching in its assessment of the challenges America will face as China becomes more dominant.
Mr Shanmugam said: “While Washington and Beijing may use similar terms and words, it is not clear that they both mean the same thing. Tensions, spats in the East China and South China Seas are an indication of how these dynamics work.
“The United States is trying to urge all claimants not to resort to aggression and ask for a reduction of tensions. To some extent, this reflects the new reality. The United States now needs the co-operation of others, and asks for it.”
But he was also clear about the potential benefits to the US of closer economic ties to the region, especially through the still-to-be-finalised Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
“US engagement in East Asia and the Trans-Pacific Partnership will be game changers. For the United States, the TPP alone will create nearly 700,000 new jobs by 2025.
“Every thinking American has got to be thinking about this,” said Mr Shanmugam.
Mr Shanmugam ended his speech at the AJC forum by quoting the ancient Chinese curse – “may you live in interesting times.”
With the current rise of Beijing, and the need for cool heads to deal with it in Washington, he said these are indeed interesting times, but ones that could also lead to ever more fruitful partnerships between the US and Asia, in what he called the “Pacific Century” to come.
Strong US-Japan alliance 'good for China and world'
Weakening of axis could drive Japan towards nuclear arms: Shanmugam
By Jeremy Au Yong US Bureau Chief In Washington, The Straits Times, 15 May 2014
Weakening of axis could drive Japan towards nuclear arms: Shanmugam
By Jeremy Au Yong US Bureau Chief In Washington, The Straits Times, 15 May 2014
A STRONG US-Japan alliance is in the interest of China as well as the rest of the world, said Law and Foreign Minister K. Shanmugam, warning that any weakening of that axis could drive Japan towards nuclear weapons.
"If the alliance is weakened, Japan may well eventually have to reconsider its steadfast disavowal of nuclear capabilities," he said.
Outlining the geopolitical challenges facing East Asia in a speech at the American Jewish Committee Global Forum in Washington, he highlighted the dangers of having a nuclear Japan.
"A nervous, nuclear-capable, and technologically advanced Japan, facing a nuclear-armed China, is not the best scenario for the US or for regional stability."
As such, he said, the China-Japan relationship, more than any other in Asia, urgently needed a new model for great power relations - not that it would come easy. "Both China and Japan have hierarchical world views. Seldom, if ever, in the last 2,000 years of the recorded history of their relationship have they ever interacted on equal terms," he said while stressing that the two countries know they need each other.
The new model, he said, requires China to recognise that modern Japan "is not and can never return to the Japan of the Taisho and Showa eras before World War II". It also requires Japan to come to terms with its own history.
Mr Shanmugam's remarks on Tuesday, the second day of a week-long visit to the United States, push back against the notion among some analysts in the US that China's strategy in the Pacific includes a plan to drive a wedge between the US and Japan. Sino-Japan ties are at their lowest point in decades as the two feud over the sovereignty of the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands in the East China Sea.
Mr Shanmugam's speech also did a broad sweep of a range of East Asian issues as well as the close ties Singapore has with the US and Israel. As had been the case a day earlier when he met his US counterpart John Kerry, he continued to emphasise the importance of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement.
A Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on a meeting Mr Shanmugam and Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry Lee Yi Shyan had with US Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker said both sides expressed support for the TPP "as an integral component of the US economic engagement to the Asia-Pacific".
Trade was also on the agenda when Mr Shanmugam met two senators. One of them, Mr Bob Menendez, heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Mr Shanmugam is due to meet three more senators.
In an interview with Foreign Policy magazine, he said that failure to agree on the TPP was not an option. "If the TPP doesn't go through, it will significantly impact both US economic interests and US standing in the region. And it will lead to many questions about US reliability," he said.
In his speech at the forum, he called the TPP a "game changer".
"TPP would connect a dozen economies across the Asia-Pacific in an economic bloc covering 40 per cent of global GDP. Specifically for the US, the TPP alone will create nearly 700,000 new jobs in the US by 2025 according to the US Chamber of Commerce."
He added: "It is therefore a no- brainer that it is in the US' core interests to tap into East Asian growth and be part of the unfolding East Asian story."
Beijing 'not actively looking for trouble with US'
By Jeremy Au Yong US Bureau Chief In Washington, The Straits Times, 15 May 2014
By Jeremy Au Yong US Bureau Chief In Washington, The Straits Times, 15 May 2014
WASHINGTON - China wants a stable relationship with the United States as it grapples with difficult reforms at home, Foreign Minister K. Shanmugam said as he outlined the complex internal dynamics currently at play in Beijing.
Speaking at the American Jewish Committee Global Forum in Washington on Tuesday, Mr Shanmugam offered his take on Chinese pragmatism, giving an alternative narrative on the Middle Kingdom to a US audience more used to the idea of China as a rising power looking to throw its weight around.
"China will seek to advance its interests externally in every way - but Beijing is not actively looking for trouble with the US. China continues to need US investments, trade, technology and management expertise from the US."
He added: "A Chinese leader today cannot be seen to be giving up on China's claims. He will be seen as weak and Chinese public opinion will be most unforgiving. Likewise, other countries who feel that their claims intersect with China's claims, cannot be seen to be passive either."
Yet for all the visibility of Chinese assertiveness overseas, he said that it is the reforms needed at home that are likely occupying the minds of Chinese leaders.
He said that while China has had tremendous success in the past two decades lifting 300 million of its citizens out of poverty, its next revolution will be harder to pull off given that the centralised power of the past has become more diffuse.
"They are seeking to do another revolution now, in the next 20 years, but in a very different context where people are on the Internet, where power is not so absolute any more and where every decision is subject to challenge internally."
Still, Mr Shanmugam said there was reason for cautious optimism that the Chinese government would succeed.
One of the key reasons: the quality of Chinese leaders.
"They were chosen for their ability to get things done, rather than deliver good sound bytes on television and make populist promises. They are also extremely determined to see China succeed. They are not in denial about the issues which China faces and that is already half the battle."
TPP 'no-brainer' for US core interests
Shanmugam pushes for successful conclusion of free trade pact in US
By Jeremy Au Yong US Bureau Chief In Washington, The Straits Times, 16 May 2014
Shanmugam pushes for successful conclusion of free trade pact in US
By Jeremy Au Yong US Bureau Chief In Washington, The Straits Times, 16 May 2014
SINGAPORE Foreign Minister K. Shanmugam stressed the importance of successfully concluding the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement when he called on three key United States lawmakers on Wednesday.
The 12-nation pact is facing resistance in the US Congress, where lawmakers are unwilling to grant fast-track trade promotion authority to President Barack Obama.
Without such authority, the White House's negotiating position is weakened as any potential deal could be subject to amendments by Congress and could get stuck in the legislature.
Trade has been a key issue for Mr Shanmugam, who is also the Law Minister, on this visit.
He has emphasised on multiple occasions the considerable boost a successful TPP would have on the US economy. For instance, he told the audience at the American Jewish Committee Global Forum on Tuesday that the growing importance of Asia as an economic force meant that the TPP should be a "no-brainer" for US core interests.
"If the US does not have the TPP, it will be a big loss to the US. Meanwhile, other trading arrangements are coming into play, like the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the Asia-Pacific-wide FTA (FTAAP).
"The importance of the TPP to the US is recognised by a broad cross section of thinkers and business people here," he said.
During Mr Shanmugam's meetings on Wednesday with Senators Jeff Flake, Ted Cruz and Tim Kaine, the men also reaffirmed the strong US-Singapore ties and the links Singapore had with the home states of the senators.
Singapore companies such as Keppel AmFels and ST Engineering have created jobs in Texas and Virginia, the states represented by Mr Cruz and Mr Kaine respectively. Meanwhile, Mr Flake's home state of Arizona hosts the Republic of Singapore Air Force's Peace Carvin II F-16 detachment.
A statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs released yesterday said: "Minister Shanmugam and the senators expressed confidence in deepening cooperation between the two countries and their respective states.
"They also discussed regional and international developments, including the importance of bringing ongoing negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership to a successful conclusion."
Separately, Mr Shanmugam also met US Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. Among other things, the two men committed to enhancing cooperation in law enforcement and homeland security.
Shanmugam, Kerry reaffirm bilateral ties
They also call for progress in creating code of conduct in South China Sea
By Jeremy Au Yong U.S. Bureau Chief In Washington, The Straits Times, 14 May 2014
They also call for progress in creating code of conduct in South China Sea
By Jeremy Au Yong U.S. Bureau Chief In Washington, The Straits Times, 14 May 2014
THE foreign ministers of Singapore and the United States have called for swifter progress in crafting a code of conduct in the South China Sea, and for territorial disputes between China and several South-east Asian countries to be resolved peacefully.
Mr K. Shanmugam and his US counterpart John Kerry raised the recent spat near the Paracel Islands during brief remarks to reporters at the State Department on Monday, before a wide-ranging meeting covering the various aspects of the Singapore-US relationship.
His week-long visit to Washington comes hot on the heels of an ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting where the South China Sea issue topped the agenda.
"We (ASEAN ministers) do not want tension. We want a code of conduct to be progressed with.
"We need a situation where parties resolve their disputes and differences in a way that's acceptable to all," Mr Shanmugam said.
Similarly, Mr Kerry reiterated US concerns about the showdown between Chinese and Vietnamese ships over a Chinese oil rig deployed near the disputed Paracels.
"All nations that are engaged in navigation and traffic within the South China Sea, the East China Sea are deeply concerned about this aggressive act," he said.
"We want to see a code of conduct created; we want to see this resolved peacefully through the Law of the Sea, through arbitration, through any other means, but not direct confrontation and aggressive action."
Mr Kerry, who spoke to China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi over the phone on Monday, described Beijing's deployment of the oil rig and ships as "provocative".
The Chinese Foreign Ministry denied that China was the guilty party and faulted the US for encouraging such behaviour instead.
"We expect the US to reflect on its acts. If it indeed expects the Pacific Ocean to be pacific, it should think what role it can play in maintaining regional peace and stability," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying said.
Both Singapore and the US were eager to not allow the issue to dominate the day's proceedings in Washington.
A statement from Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the meeting focused largely on bilateral issues.
Mr Shanmugam and Mr Kerry both reaffirmed the "close and longstanding" links between their countries, and lauded progress made under the US-Singapore Third Country Training Programme launched in 2012.
The programme, which provides training for ASEAN government officials, has now trained some 280 officials in areas such as sustainable development.
Both sides also agreed that it was important to reach an early conclusion to negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement.
Talks on the 12-nation free trade pact appeared to have stalled last month when President Barack Obama's Asia visit did not produce good news on that front. The US Congress has also declined to grant Mr Obama fast-track trade negotiating authority.
Mr Shanmugam pointed out that the deal would bring significant benefits for the US.
"Today, 560,000 American jobs are dependent on exports to ASEAN alone, and ASEAN attracts nearly US$200 billion (S$250.1 billion) of investments, the largest in all of Asia. One in three American jobs are dependent on exports to Asia," he said.
He is due to meet at least four senators during his visit.
Mr Shanmugam, who is concurrently Law Minister, also met US Attorney-General Eric Holder. They reaffirmed their desire to strengthen bilateral legal cooperation.
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